


The Noise That Echoes

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, KEITH NEEDS HUGS, Sensory Overload, Torture, here i am hurting keith again, voltronwhumpweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Shiro comforts Keith, who is extremely sound sensitive and recovering from days of torture by the Galra





	The Noise That Echoes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rangergirl3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/gifts), [Haleykim84 (tristen84)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tristen84/gifts).



“Hey.” Shiro said, keeping his voice low as he entered Keith’s room.

Keith looked up from the pad he had been reading on, the dark smudges under his eyes standing out in stark contrast against his paler than usual skin.

“Hey.” he said, his voice still hoarse.

Shiro fought the urge to wince at the sound of it as he recalled the reason why Keith’s voice sounded like that. The knowledge that Keith had screamed that much put Shiro on edge every time he thought of it.

“Can’t sleep?” Shiro asked.

Keith shook his head, obviously opting to not strain his voice any further than necessary, then he raised a questioning eyebrow at Shiro.

Shiro shrugged and gave Keith a wry smile, “Couldn’t sleep either. So I thought I’d check on you. How’re you feeling?”

Keith looked away and shrugged. His hands moving to pick at the bandages on his wrists.

Shiro frowned, remembering the cuffs that had kept Keith’s hands bound behind his back had cut deep into his skin from Keith’s struggles to get out of them.

Shiro moved closer to Keith’s bed. ‘Keith,” he said, slowly reaching out to rest his hand on Keith’s.

Keith jerked slightly at the touch, but made no move to pull away, instead letting his hands go still under Shiro’s hand.

Shiro sighed, it had only been a day since they had rescued Keith and he was understandably still very jumpy.

“Want some company?” Shiro asked, murmuring this time, mindful of Keith’s extreme sensitivity to sound at the moment.

Keith still didn’t meet Shiro’s eyes, but he nodded slightly.

Shiro climbed onto the bed and settled himself next to Keith, mindful of his bruised ribs, and slung an arm over his shoulders. Keith tensed again at the touch, but relaxed after a moment.

Shiro glanced at the pad in Keith’s lap and saw that Keith had been watching footage of himself fighting the gladiator in the training room. Knowing Keith, he was looking for flaws and mistakes in his technique, seeing how he could improve his skills. Shiro smiled, Keith was nothing if not dedicated to the things he was interested in. 

For a while they sat like that together, going over footage of both of their solo training against the videos, pointing out flaws and mistakes to each other and coming up with ways they could improve. Keith communicating by pointing and gesturing most of the time. Luckily Shiro knew Keith well enough to understand most of his “sign language.”

It was nice, to be able to sit together for a change. They hadn’t gotten much time to just sit together for a while since becoming defenders of the universe. Shiro realised just how much he had missed it. It was also nice because it kept Shiro from thinking about why Keith was bruised and battered and sound sensitive in the first place. 

Eventually, though, the exhaustion got the better of Keith and he nodded off against Shiro’s chest. Which meant that Shiro’s mind was free to wander as he listened to the soft music playing from the little radio that Hunk and Pidge had built for Keith the previous day, and of course it wandered right to the past few days events.

It had all started when they’d been separated during a raid on a Galra ship. Shiro and Keith had been together, but then there had been an explosion, and after that all hell had broken loose. Sometime during that chaos Shiro had lost track of Keith. When everyone had finally regrouped they’d come to the horrifying realisation that Keith wasn’t with them. What followed was a mad scramble to find him. He wasn’t answering his comms and his signal wasn’t showing up on the Castle scanners. 

Shiro had been about ready to start pulling his hair out. He should have kept a better eye on Keith. He should never have let them get separated. Now Keith was missing and it was all his fault! Finally they had to concluded that whoever had gotten Keith had taken him off the ship and gotten away. Shiro’s stomach tied itself into knots at the thought of Haggar getting her hands on Keith. They needed to find him before that could happen!

Then, they’d had a lucky break. The Castle’s scanners had picked up the smaller ship that had escaped the main ship. Then Hunk and Pidge had put their brilliant minds together and come up with a way to track that ship. It took them about a day to assemble the necessary technology to trace the signal and then get a strong enough lock on it. Following it to its destination had also taken them another day of travel because they were following the trail and didn’t know where it’s final destination was, so they couldn’t just wormhole there. 

By the time they had finally found where Keith was, close to three days had passed and all of them were on edge. Once they reached the surprisingly small space station that the trail led to, they’d had no time to formulate a plan, because the Red Lion had gone absolutely ballistic and world have broken its hangar doors down had Coran not opened them in time. At least the lion gave them a fairly good idea of where to look for Keith. 

Finding exactly where he was being kept and fighting their way to him hadn’t exactly been easy, but with anger, frustration, and worry fueling their actions, they steadily pushed their way to Keith’s cell. 

Pidge had hacked her way into the systems and unlocked the solid door standing in their way between them and Keith. Lance and Hunk stood guard. Shiro was the one to go in and get Keith. 

When the door had swung open they’d all been accosted by the most horrible noise Shiro had ever heard. It was shrill and overwhelmingly loud. Like feedback at a heavy metal concert, only about ten times worse. 

After the initial shock, Pidge had wasted no time in turning that awful sound off. The silence that followed, inside the cell especially, had been deafening. Dread had threatened to drown Shiro when realised exactly what had been going on in that cell. 

He’d wasted no more time on getting into the cell. He’d found Keith easily, curled up in one of the back corners of the cell. His hands bound behind him and his head wedged between his knees. 

At first Keith hadn’t reacted to Shiro’s calling his name, and Shiro had thought that he’d been unconscious. He was proved wrong, however, when he’d touched Keith’s shoulder with the intent to try and shake him awake. That had earned him a kick to the gut from a very disorientated, dizzy, utterly overwhelmed Keith. 

It hadn’t taken them long to figure out that Keith’s hearing had been seriously affected by being exposed to that terrible noise for however long they’d had him in there. Dried blood had trailed out of both his ears, Shiro guessed that his eardrums must have burst. Keith could barely hear them when they spoke. Shiro would never be able to forget the absolutely devastated look that had crossed Keith’s face when he’d realised that he couldn’t hear.

Getting Keith back to the Castle had been surprisingly easy. And Allura wasted no time in wormholing them very far away from there. 

Coran checked Keith out and deemed that his injuries weren’t serious enough for Keith to be put in a pod. He’d simply treated Keith’s wounds and then sprayed some stuff into Keith’s ears. The effects of that spray had, unfortunately, been instantaneous. Suddenly Keith could hear again, and for a moment a look of relief flashed over his face. Then his face had scrunched up in pain and he cried out and clamped his hands over his hears. Of course, his reaction had worked everyone else into panic, they had worried that Keith was having an adverse reaction to the alien medication. But Shiro noticed that the more everyone talked, the more Keith seemed to curl up on himself, and he’d finally shouted at the others to shut up. 

That’s when Shiro had been able to hear Keith muttering that it was too loud, too loud, too loud. And Shiro had put two and two together. He’d explained, quietly, that Keith was sound sensitive. Being exposed to such a loud noise for an extended period of time had caused him to have an auditory overload. They needed to get him somewhere quiet. 

The others had sprung into action faster than they did on a normal day. Coran produced some sound muffling headphones, which he carefully slipped over Keith’s ears, once Shiro had managed to pull the distressed paladin’s hands away. Keith’s whole body sagged once they were on, though, and he promptly passed out from exhaustion. 

That had been three days ago. Since then the others had been doing what they could to help Keith get his hearing back to normal. The little radio playing soft music in the corner of his room a testament to Pidge and Hunk’s help. Lance helped too in making sure that Keith didn’t go stir-crazy by keeping him company, and annoying him. 

They all tried so hard to show Keith that they cared, and it warmed Shiro’s heart. He knew full well that Keith had had a difficult life growing up. He was glad that Keith had finally found a family that cared for him. He was delighted that he formed a part of that family.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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